On the fifth of Iyar, 1948, G-d himself created the sovereign Jewish State in the Land of Israel
We are all on a daily roller coaster of coping
Since Oct. 7th our life has become very different. We have all been riding on a roller coaster of spiritual, emotional, cognitive and physical challenges. As part of this ongoing roller coaster ride, I think we are all trying to come up with new or adjusted explanations of what is happening to us, to our family and community, to our precious state, and our worldwide Jewish people.
To many, including myself, there seem to no very easy, clear, concrete answers. The future often seems to be very unclear and uncertain. And our faithful rabbis also agree that their guiding spiritual messages are only 'tentative'
The coping faith concept that 'keeps me going' is that G-d 'himself' created the Jewish State on the fifth of Iyar, 1948
Probably as a coping response to this emotional roller coaster experience, a very specific faith concept has 'bubbled up' within my soul, and has become the 'corner stone-the guiding North star'- of my coping responses. This faith concept is based n my understanding of Rav Kook's Torah.
Very simply, I have become convinced that on the fifth of Iyar, 1948, G-d created -with 'his own hands'-the sovereign Jewish state of Israel, just as he created All Existence in 'six days', and just as he revealed himself at Mt. Sinai. Ben Gurion, and the Zionist movement were courageous, far seeing, energetically initiating participants, but ultimately, they were 'merely' actors in a drama that G-d himself produced and directed, and is still, daily, producing and directing.
According to my very, very limited understanding, we can metaphorically say that G-d saw the incredible, unprecedented destruction of the Holocaust, and the extremely rapid rate of worldwide assimilation and inter marriage, and decided he had to act fast in order to save the future of the Jewish people. G-d thus acted to transform the foundations laid by the Zionist movement, and create a sovereign Jewish state, located in our ancestral homeland, but also completely surrounded by a sea of hostile Arab-Islamic states.
More simply stated, G-d decided that it was necessary to create a 'game changer' in Jewish history; to literally start a new chapter in the history of the People of the Book. G-d decided to give the Jewish people a new set of 'homework' tasks, an updated version of key Torah mitzvot. After the fifth of Iyar, 1948, this 'updated 'version of G-d's Torah is now commanding us, for example, to build a Jewish army, to add settlements throughout our ancestral home, and to inject Torah-Jewish values, and a Torah way of life, in to what would otherwise be secular social institutions.
Secular Jews, reading this, will have no idea about what I am talking. My Haredi-
Chabad grandchildren think I am a semi deluded, semi apikorsus religious Jew. But despite what all others may say, I really, really believe that the above metaphor/concept of Faith truly reflects certain important aspects of what G-d is demanding of his People in the year 2024, based on the Torah of Rav Kook
How does this 'metaphor'/ faith concept of G- creating His Jewish state help me cope?
Since Oct. 7th, this 'metaphor/concept of Faith' has helped me 'keep going' going every day, and prevents me from becoming overly anxious or depressed.
When I daily believe that G-d created, and is daily creating, our Jewish State, this acts in two ways.
It fortifies my personal involvement
One, belief in G-d as the Creator of our Jewish Sate very much strengthens my daily motivation and endurance to experience myself as an active participant/partner in our current war for survival.
How am I participating in G-d's commanded war of survival? At the age of 77 I am not serving in the army. My wife and I have a son and three grandson's/ son in laws actively serving. My neighbors in our dati leumi settlement have many, many more members actively serving. Our settlement already has five soldiers who have lived much of their life in the settlement die in army service.
When my son -in-law, doing a post doctorate in California, was called up to serve as in the tank unit, he immediately flew to Israel after Oct. 7th, and we immediately flew to San Diego to be with our daughter and grandchildren.
Once a week I volunteer in our local senior center and attempt to maintain the morale of the participants, many of who have two generations serving in the army. And, of course, the wellbeing of our soldiers, and prayer for victory, is a constant part of my prayers. And maybe even my somewhat obsessive following the ups and downs of our war effort in the printed media (I refuse to listen to the radio, or watch television, in order to save my soul from being manipulated) can be understood as a 'form of participation' because a very silent, subterranean prayer usually accompanies my news update.
The faith concept of G-d as the creator of the Jewish State thus significantly fortifies, and gives existential meaning, to my ' personal involvement' in Israel's current war for survival. The faith concept of 'G-d as Creator of the Jewish State' acts as a command to become a co-creator in partnership with G-d (This is a basic principle in the theology of the Rav Soloveitchik). G-d wants/demand that we be active participants with him in creating and preserving a Jewish State. G-d commands us to be active in all facets of Jewish State society, in accordance with the laws of G-d's Torah. And today one of G-d's demand is that we be co participants ( be personally involved) with G-d in fighting to preserve our state.
G-d as the 'producer and director' of our war for survival
Two, since Oct. 7th, I am sure all of us have had difficult days following our war for survival., from mourning people who have been important to us, to having doubts about how the war is progressing, to being confused about strategic decisions by the government and the army, and including the intrusion, and sometimes the havoc, that the war has played in our personal and family lives. And many of us then become entrapped in serious feelings of anxiety, doubt and confusion, including the feeling that this seemingly never ending, war may not be progressing to a positive end. These doubts over take us. Simply put, it sometimes seems like we are caught in a 'semi tragic drama ' that has become too big for us to understand.
It is exactly at these moments that the faith concept of G-d being the creator of the Jewish State, and thus implicitly also of this war for survival, gives us support. He is the producer and the director of this historical drama. We are actors on His stage. This war is primarily His responsibility. There is only so much that we as an individual Jew can do. Simply, ' our war for survival is ultimately in His hands, and not ours'
Understanding G-d's providence with regard to our war for survival as an algebraic equation:The basic idea of my prayerful commentary is that each of us (as an individual/ or political movement) is commanded to maximize and actualize, on the playing field of political conflict, our own particular concept concerning what constitutes the best good for Israeli society. In this sense we are all numbers/ variables in the algebraic equation of ISRAELI POLITICAL HISTORY . But G-d is the only one who 'solves' our historical equation. My job is to advance and maximally actualize my concept of the political good. But G-d determines what will the ultimate solution to our political/solution struggle
Let me explain with a simple example. During our efforts to stop the expulsion of Jews from Gush Katif, we confronted the army at Kfar Maimon. We protestors were inside the fence enclosed settlement, and the soldiers surrounded the settlement. We talked to the soldiers on the other side of the fence. Most of them had never really heard before our arguments against the expulsion.
In addition to our arguments for not retreating from any part of the Land of Israel, we emphasized the potential threat of terror and missile attacks from the Gaza strip. Most soldiers responded that by taking the army and settlers out of Gaza, the Palestinian Authority would seek peace and build a Middle East version of a commercially successful Singapore. I said to the soldiers, "Maybe you are right, Maybe I am right. Let's wait a year, and meet in a Tel Aviv café, and see how G-d has decided to solve the geo-political algebraic equation of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict."
We protestors maximized our input, our algebraic number, but G-d solved the equation differently then we wanted. This is the meaning of Divine Providence in real time.
An ancillary footnote to G-d's creation of the Jewish State. He embodied our State in a democratic regime.
In order to interpret our current geo-political dilemmas through the lenses of 'Divine Providence-G-d as the Creator of our Jewish State" we must also relate to the fact that G-d gave us the 'gift' of a democratic regime part and parcel with the Jewish State.
In the short run a democratic regime may be a 'liability', but in the long run it seems to be a 'blessing.'
In the short run: Since Oct. 7th, our democratic regime has seemed to be a liability in two ways.
One, our democratic regime has allowed, if not encouraged, the political discourse and protest that have rapidly eroded much of the initial national unity that we had for three to four months after Oct. 7th.
Two, democratic regimes find it harder to fight long wars of attrition than do totalitarian regimes. Almost always, the democratic populace has less patience for long term sacrifice than does a totalitarian regime. And, in fact, the Hamas basic geo-political strategy is based on this premise. They believe that they can outlast us, and more readily endure, civilian and military deaths, and economic sacrifice. In democratic regimes the well being of the individual carries more political weight.
However, in the long run the volatile discourse of democracy actually can create a realistic, but stable, national bonding. Democratic discourse allows all ' political actors' to 'put all the cards on the table' and to let each side see and understand 'where the other one stands' and can thus promote realistic, 'this world' compromises born out of real mutual commitment. Democratic discourse thus allows social change to occur in a gradual, guarded, but more lasting way.
Looking back over 76 years of Israeli history we can carefully say that the democratic regime that G-d gave us, wrapped up in his 'gift' of a Jewish State, has done more to mold us into one Jewish-Israeli people, than to divide us.
One can carefully say, that G-d was 'very wise' when he included democracy in his gift of the State. Unlike many of our politicians, 'G-d knew what he was doing'.
Concluding words of Torah from HaRav Soloveitchik: The paradox of G-d's involvement in His historic gift of a Jewish State
This article thus argues that, on one hand, G-d created the Jewish State on the Fifth of Iyar and has been intimately involved in all aspects of our State's development, and yet, on the other hand, the purpose and meaning of this divine intervention is very frequently confusing and little understood. This lack of clarity of G-d's intervention makes our daily emotional coping much more difficult and burdensome.
We can better understand the paradox of our 'confusion' if we refer to a very basic tenet of the Rav Soloveitchik's theology. The Rav argues that Finite man can never understand the ways and actions of the Infinite G-d. He insists that the Will of the Infinite G-d's ways will always and inherently remain a Spiritual Mystery to finite man. In fact, all attempts to morally-rationally, or metaphysically (Kabbalah, Chasidut) explain G-d's action is almost a 'hilul ha Shem-a defaming' of G-d'.
For example, the Rav never, never tried to 'explain' the Holocaust, other than to say it was a 'period of hester panim- a temporary suspension of G-d ' intentional involvement in our world'. (In contrast Rav Tzvi Yehudah Kook connected the Holocaust with the founding of the state of Israel, but not as cause and effect).
Another example of the Rav's theology, is his discussion of death and mourning. When comforting a mourner, one should listen with empathy, if possible, extend concrete support, but never try to explain G-d's ways with metaphysical understandings or 'justifications'. We finite beings cannot truly understand G-d's ways. Rather we must see our loses and suffering as a divine command for active, assertive acts of self-help and coping.
In this vein, Rav Soloveitchik describes the 'holy paradox' of G-d's ongoing involvement in the historic creation of the Jewish State, and our inability to fully comprehend this involvement
The Rav discusses finite man's inability to understand His involvement in our lives, when he comments on Moses's discourse with G-d after the sin of the spies.
The Rav writes:
"Man must …help G-d to reveal His presence in the world. We encounter the Shechinah continually. Yet G-d is not clearly revealed to us. He is hidden from view. He is indeed close, but He does not reveal Himself. The hand of G-d in human events is not revealed. He is hidden from the world. He dwells concealed in the shadow (Ps. 91:1) G-d is in close proximity to man, so close that man almost touch Him, but not everyone can penetrate the cloud to reveal Him.
G-d can decide to disperse the obscuring clouds, and occasionally in history, He chooses to reveal Himself. (However) More often, however, G-d remains obscure. Israel has been charged with revealing G-d and publicizing His name."
Summary
I have tried to share with my readers the faith concepts that help me cope with the emotional challenges of our ongoing war in Gaza.
According to Rav Kook we are co- participants with G-d in creating a Jewish State. And this has been, and will be, a confusing, sometimes joyous, and sometimes tortuous, historic task. And seeing our selves as co- creators with G-d daily strengthens our personal involvement in supporting our war for survival.
And when daily events seem to our finite selves just too sad and confusing, we can be reassured by the belief that we, ultimately, are 'only' actors in a divine historical drama of which our G-d is the director and producer. The 'outcome' of this drama is G-d's sole responsibility.
And Rav Soloveitchik 'adds' that feelings of uncertainty, sadness and confusion, are actually acts of 'sacrifice' that we bring to His altar, and are extremely precious in G-d's 'eyes'. We should understand our feelings of confusion are actually the extremely valuable essence of our relationship as finite beings with our Infinite G-d.
I pray that these faith concepts that help me cope with our current war of survival , may also strengthen the coping of some of Arutz Sheva's readers.